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Tuesday, March 17, 2015

14 Ways to Piss Off Your New Home Buyer

How many times during the day does something happen that
makes you angry or impatient?

How about the guy in front of you taking more than two
seconds to move after the light changes? Or driving 70 MPH on the Interstate
until you get within site of your exit and the driver in front of you is doing
50? Or watching your food get cold at the service window while your
waitress/waiter texts on his iPhone?

Fess up, this happens every day to all of us. So what
happens when your new home buyer experiences the same thing when working with
you on their modular home?

Here are 14 things that are sure to piss off even the
nicest customer:

1. Take more than two
hours to call back or 12 hours to answer an email.

We live in an age of instant messaging, texting, fast food,
and 15 minute oil changes, yet you’re going to wait 24 hours to return a phone
call? What are you, nuts? People want answers NOW, and the longer
you wait the better the chance they’ll move on to your competitor.

2. Show up late with
no call.

Nothing enrages people more than disrespecting their time,
so if you’re going be late (which is bad enough), at least give someone the
courtesy of calling them to let them know. Most people will forgive your
tardiness if you make an attempt to let them know. Anything more than 10
minutes past an agreed upon time probably merits a call.

3. Don’t clean
up.

This is something that bugs most new home buyers. They want
their new home treated with respect even during the construction process. Some
people will absolutely lose their mind if your subscontractors leave pizza
boxes and scrap materials after the end of each work day. I recommend
taking every precaution possible to minimize trash and to clean up every day
until the work area darn near sparkles. Ignore this one at your own risk.
You don’t want to get the reputation of being a ‘dirty’ new home builder.

4. Blindside the
homeowner with surprise costs.

There’s no quicker way to spoil an otherwise good
relationship with a customer than to nail them with a $200 surcharge near the
end of a $400,000 job. This is particularly irritating to people when it
involves something that you should have anticipated from the beginning. Suck
it up and eat this cost.

5. Take forever to complete
a job.

There are several major reasons that building a modular home
is better than a site built house but the one that is most important to your
buyer is getting into their new faster than having one stick built. Better to
finish early than late.

6. Do crappy work.

If you’re a glutten for punishment and really enjoy getting
nightly phone calls from infuriated customers, then go ahead and speed through
your jobs with no regard for quality. If not, then take those extra few
minutes or hours to make sure your work is outstanding and you’ll avoid untold
numbers of massive headaches. I had a customer come to my house at 10:00
PM to complain about finding a can of paint spilled on the underlay. Even
though it was done by my painting contractor, guess who caught it?

9. Come to the job
unprepared.

Nothing says competence like showing up without the right
tools or materials. These are dumb mistakes that piss off customers and they
cost you valuable hours during the day. Result: the customer gives you a
negative review on Angie’s List

10. Don’t
listen.

It’s a common human characteristic that we want our concerns
to be heard, and we don’t want to have to repeat them. So your job as a
new home builder, particularly during the first meeting is to listen as much as
it is to sell. Don’t just bull-rush them with a boilerplate sales pitch;
be receptive to their unique questions, fears, and expectations and then
provide clear, specific answers.

People will appreciate your willingness to honestly and
thoroughly address their particular situation, and the ultimate result will be
a higher closing ratio for your business. If you insist on talking over
them or if they have to ask you the same question two or three times before
getting an answer you are on the fast-track to a failing business.

11. Be rude or
dismissive.

This is a no-brainer but I’m always amazed by how many builders
I come across that treat their customers like chumps. Whether it’s rooted
in a lack of basic manners or just a hatred of humanity in general I can never
tell, but I can tell you that eventually these people will be out of
business. Word of rotten customer service spreads faster than wildfire.

12. Letting your emotions
rule the day.

Sometimes customers are jerks, but if you’re smart
you’ll keep your cool as much as possible. This is one of those professions
where you’ll need to develop a thick skin and lots of patience. People
will tick you off, they will disrespect you, they will ask millions of stupid
questions, but you need to understand that by rolling your eyes or showing your
irritation you’ll be magnifying the situation by a factor of ten. Act
perturbed by a homeowner’s concerns and there’s a good chance that they’ll go
from being slightly distressed to being The Hulk. The more you can
tolerate crazy customers the better off your business will be in the long
run. Bite your lip, swallow your pride, and watch your wallet get fat.

13. Be
condescending.

If you have a habit of boosting your self-esteem by trying
to make others feel stupid then prepare for the wrath of the normally calm
soccer mom. She may not know as much about ceramic tile as you do,
but give her the impression that you think she’s dense and she’ll make your
life a living hell until job completion.

14. Forget to send a thank
you letter to your home buyers.

How would you feel if you spent $400,000 on a new
modular home and never received a thank you in the mail?

Bottom line: Wouldn’t you rather be invited to their first
BBQ than to be BBQ’d by a pissed off homeowner?